Vistara CEO Weighs In As Cancellations Mount and Pilots Protest

Airbnb is taking themed accommodations to the next level with its new Icons category, featuring a collection of stays that offer an immersive experience centered around music, film, television, art, sports and more.

India’s largest carrier IndiGo, which recently placed its first-ever order for widebody aircraft, plans to offer nonstop connectivity from major Indian airports to global destinations.

India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) has launched its first-ever travel focused credit card. ‘SBI Card MILES’ has been launched in three variants to cater to different types of travelers, from beginners to frequent flyers. 

TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel said recent protests in the Canary Islands are not about tourism, but rather about a shortage of housing and lack of regulation of online platforms like Airbnb. 

Next month, Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung, the co-founders of the Brooklyn-based design studio In Common With, plan to open Quarters, a shop housed in a 19th-century TriBeCa loft. The 8,000-square-foot space is laid out like a well-appointed home: Guests enter through the library and can wander the great room, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bar and lounge at their leisure. Everything within — furniture, lighting, art and even the pantry provisions — is available for purchase. Ozemba and Hung collaborated with several of their creative friends on the objects and décor that fill the space. They designed the tiling throughout with the New York City-based artist Shane Gabler, while a fresco depicting eels with earrings by the painter Claudio Bonuglia adorns a portion of the bar and lounge, which will open for evening service beginning this summer. The furniture on display is a mix of restored vintage pieces and new designs by Ozemba and Hung, some of which can be customized with imagery drawn up by various tattoo artists. “We’ll be able to sit down with people and play,” Ozemba says of the space’s potential to spur conversation and inspire new projects. “Retail shouldn’t be so serious. Take off your shoes and have a glass of wine.”

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) is bringing back its Gateway brand from “cold storage,” but it will be a reimagined version: A full-service hotel offering in the upscale segment.

The European Commission has introduced a new visa “cascade” regime for Indian nationals applying for Schengen visas in India. This regime looks to offer longer-term, multi-entry Schengen visas, based on the applicant’s travel history.

India is becoming a convenient hub for travel between Southeast Asia and the Middle East, IndiGo Chairman V Sumantran said during his address at a college in Chennai. He also cited the example of several airlines carrying passengers from places such as Bangkok to Jeddah or Dubai by connecting through Indian cities.

Airlines flying over Iranian airspace promptly rerouted to different airports or returned to their original departure locations early Friday morning following Israel’s retaliatory attack on Iran.

The Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators is determined to increase Indian arrivals to the island destination and is taking steps to achieve this.

Passing over the Atlas Mountains in 1925, the French military photographer Marcelin Flandrin spotted a Barbary lion walking through the sand. Flandrin had flown the route often enough to realize that the sighting was uncommon. He took a picture, which he published as a postcard sold to travelers visiting Casablanca.

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan has outlined a roadmap for the airline’s impending merger with Air India, following staff concerns and recent operational disruption.